


Heartbeat

by WanderingWanda



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-08 01:05:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5477366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderingWanda/pseuds/WanderingWanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The whole country is mourning Chat Noir, the fallen hero. But Marinette can't believe that he really is gone and clings to hope.</p>
<p>"Prompt: Chat Noir dies, national day of mourning, then Plagg brings him back to life"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before "The way it was meant to be", but I totally forgot to post it here, my bad. I'm not totally satisfied with it but maybe you will like it more than I do.  
> French being my first language, there are probably some mistakes here and there, I apologize!  
> Bonne lecture !

Marinette has never realized how long a minute is. In this lapse of time, 250 babies are born all around the world whereas 105 people take their final breath, the average human heart pumps 83 gallons of blood, lightings strike the Earth 360 times, 1800 stars explode.

In one minute, Chat Noir died.

The classroom is silent. The students are standing behind their chair, while the ticking of the clock leaves a profound cut in Marinette’s skin every time the hand moves. Her lips are closed as if they have been sewed together. If they were to part, Marinette believes that they would produce the inhuman sound that she so desperately wants to release since it happened.

Her eyes are dry. She has no more tears to give, they all dropped in the Parisian pavement and her cushion, unlike Alya, who is discreetly rubbing her eyes. The two friends are so close, yet so apart: Marinette could take her hand, try to console her with one glance. But she doesn’t, too engrossed in her own misery.

In front of them, Nino is looking at the empty seat next to be, but there is no sorrow, only unhappiness. In his innocence and ignorance, he doesn’t suspect that his whole world changed. As Paris is mourning its fallen hero, Nino is wondering why his best friend doesn’t come to school anymore.

Since the beginning of the month, nobody has heard of Adrien Agreste. Some say that he is sick and cannot leave his home. Marinette doesn’t know who started this rumor, but apparently, nobody is worried about him. They have no reason to connect him with the disappearance of Chat Noir. Marinette had tried to contact his father, but nobody had opened the door or answered the phone.

Marinette feels like it is her duty to tell Nino what happened to his closest friend. It would shatter his heart, destroy him, but if she were him, she would want the truth. But Chat Noir had kept his mask until the end, and she cannot take it off now, just like that.

She stands still until the moment of silence ends. When noises fill the room like thousand bees flying around her head, Marinette’s heart cracks. It is used to it now: it has been broken since the one belonging to the boy she loves presumably stopped.

 

The French flag is at half mast all around the capital when Ladybug comes back to where their last battle happened. They had found their nemesis, Hawk Moth, inside the Paris Observatory. The man was powerful, even without his army of super villains. It had been a messy fight. The duo had been pushed to their limits. Marinette had kept for days a bump on her forehead and bruises all over her body, in spite of her suit. It was their first encounter with the man behind the possessions of the citizens and Marinette had been strike by the cold atmosphere surrounding him and his feverish glare. He had succeeded in knocking her out for a few minutes. When she woke up, dizzy and really pissed, she heard a terrible sound that took her breath away: Chat Noir was screaming like there was no tomorrow. She tried to get up, even though her body wanted nothing more than to lie down forever. A few meters in front of her, Chat Noir was facing their enemy, whose head was buried in his hands. The blonde boy was trembling, his shoulders were tense.

“Why?” he shouted, his voice becoming high pitched. “It’s impossible! _Why?_ ”

Marinette had never heard him sound so hurt, so… _breakable_. She felt the impulse to hug him, cover him with kisses and take the pain away.

She couldn’t. Her earnings were beeping. She had used her Lucky Charm without saving the day, and she was going to pay the price. Hawk Moth couldn’t see Marinette Cheng, she had to run. Yet, she didn’t move, as if she had gazed directly at Medusa.

Chat Noir turned towards her. His face was covered in sticky blood- _his_ blood. The wound seemed to be somewhere on the top of his head, and deep.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured before staggering. A hundred of black butterflies enveloped him and Hawk Moth. The charm broke: Marinette got up and started running toward Chat Noir, but the black tornado took him and their enemy away.

She was alone in the observatory, as Marinette. She started screaming, the image of the injured boy she loved encrusted in her retina.

 

He’s missing, she tells herself. Still alive. No body, no death, right? Tikki tells her to not get her hopes up. Last time she was with him, he was injured and taken away by their enemy, who had no interest in taking care of him. Even if he wasn’t badly hurt, Hawk Moth could still…

The Medias had decided very early that Chat Noir wouldn’t return, after they had seen Ladybug fighting alone for days. Her opponents weren’t super villains: since the fight at the Observatory, no one had been possessed by Akumas, but unfortunately, crimes still happened, and Marinette tried to help the police, when she wasn’t busy looking for Adrien. Journalists had asked her about his disappearance. After a few days, Marinette had finally admitted what happened to him. Everyone had started looking for him, people on social media have been posting blurry pictures where they swear they can see his silhouette.

Almost exactly one month after his vanishing, the president had announced a national mourning day for the hero nobody had actually seen die.

Bullshit.

Marinette spends all of her energy looking for him. She has no idea where Hawk Moth’s HQ is, but she’s sure she has visited every building of this city. Still has no clue.

Today, she can hardly knock at Adrien’s door. She’s tired, her nightmares are getting worse, the whole world wants to believe Chat Noir is dead, and she feels so, so hopeless. She knows that nobody will answer, but Marinette has to try. What does Gabriel Agreste think of his son’s disappearance?  Maybe he doesn’t want to attract the Medias’ attention. It sill fells irresponsible to Marinette. Another proof that he was a terrible father.

She stays ten minutes in front of the door. She hears movement on the inside, but no one comes. Classic.

It’s almost midnight when she decides to go home. Nothing happened during her patrol. Guilt is never too far away, though. Every time she transforms back into Marinette, every time she rests, a small voice in her head taunts her, calling her selfish. _“If the roles had been reverse, Adrien would have already found you”._

She can see her family’s bakery when an arm appears from the bushes and pushes her. Marinette yelps and instinctively hits her attacker while falling on him. He groans and it’s like someone punched Marinette in the gut. There’s almost no light, they are in the middle of bushes, but Marinette can recognize those big green eyes and this charming (bruised, but sill) face everywhere.

Below her, Adrien rubs his nose, with a painful expression.

“Oh my God!” she screams, not caring about who might hear them, because he is here, after all this time, _he is here_ , with her, and she touches him to be sure that she is not some cruel illusion, but he is not. She helps him get up and holds him tighter than ever, tears running down her face. Soon she feels his hands around her, his chin on her head.

At first, the reunion is confusing. None of them seems able to talk, they are too overwhelmed. So they kiss, comforted by each other’s warmth, by the heady idea of being alive, together, like they are meant to.

“Where were you?” Marinette finally asks, holding his hands, fearing that if she stops touching him, he might vanish again. “You disappeared _just like that_! The whole city thinks you’re dead… And… I was starting to think that, too.”

Her voice breaks, and Adrien’s expression becomes vague, distant.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers painfully. A bandage covers a part of his face, telling Marinette that his wound during the fight had been indeed serious. He seems clean, meaning that he had somewhere to shower. Did he come home? “I couldn’t come back right away… I was injured, and the first weeks have been difficult. I wanted to contact you, tell you I was okay. But he didn’t let me.”

Their fingers are intertwined and that’s how Marinette notices that something’s off.

“Adrien? Where is your ring?”

His sadness is palpable. His lips form a flat line and he doesn’t look at her. He looks… _ashamed_?

“I couldn’t keep it. Plagg said it was too dangerous. I… I can’t be Chat Noir anymore.”

“What? Nonsense! You were _born_ to become Chat Noir! What is this cheese lover talking about?”

Their eyes meet again. Marinette’s heart stops. Adrien’s eyes are filled of tears.

“Marinette… Hawk Moth is my father.”

 

 

The starless night sky is infinite over his head.  He enjoys the wind ruffling his hair as he escalades the most famous monument of France, the Eiffel Tower. It’s incredibly easy. He has never been a sporty type of guy, but with his new strength and agility, everything seems effortless.

He gazes at the sleeping city tenderly. Paris is truly a beautiful city, especially at night, when its breath is suspended. Truly an eyeful.

He had thought that he would save the city with his pencils. Turns out that he is okay with his brand new cat costume.

**Author's Note:**

> I knooow, the whole Hawk Moth thing was predictable, uh? And I don't really like bringing a character to life, so the Chat Noir thingy thingy was my way of twisting the prompt. I hope you liked it!


End file.
